By all accounts, the 15th edition of the arteBA contemporary art fair was an overwhelming success. Long considered one of Latin America’s most important art events, nearly 100,000 people passed through the doors of the La Rural convention center in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo during the six-day fair, held May 18-24.

“We are very proud. The galleries performed very well. There were a lot of sales in quantity and quality, and we expect the market for Latin American art to continue to expand,” said Mauro Herlitzka, president of arteBA Fundacion.

The festival kicked off with a champagne-soaked inauguration, attended by a bevy of Argentine celebrities and dignitaries, including Argentina’s First Lady, Cristina Kirchner, and Daniel Scioli, Argentina’s vice president.

“Buenos Aires offers great diversity, permanent innovation, talent, creativity and competitiveness. We really want people to visit here,” Scioli said in an exclusive interview with ArtInfo.

More than 60 galleries displayed their works at the fair. The vast majority of these galleries were from Argentina, but eight other countries were also represented: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Spain, the United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. The biggest outside presence undoubtedly belonged to Brazil, which had seven different galleries on site.

“The art market in Latin America has had an evolution, and so has arteBA. If you had seen this event some years ago, compared to now, it has really improved quite a lot,” said Thomas Cohn, an arteBA committee member and owner of Galeria Thomas Cohn in Sao Paulo.

Cohn—who was born in Germany, raised in Uruguay and has lived the past 40 years in Brazil—was offering works from several international artists, notably octogenarian Argentine Carlos Gorriarena, whose colorful and kitschy acrylics Cohn described as “undiscovered” gems.

Argentina and Brazil have a true love-hate relationship that extends to all aspects of life: business, politics, soccer and, yes, art. Their two biggest cities, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, have traditionally duked it out for the title of “cultural capitol” of South America. It’s a sentiment that was ever-present at this event.

“It’s impossible to avoid the rivalry between Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo,” said Suely Grisanti of Casa Triangulo Gallery of Sao Paulo. “The pieces we bring here are quite different than what the Argentines are accustomed to seeing. This makes them curious, because of the different styles, and this is good. They don’t know these Brazilian artists, so they are always asking if I have catalogues or where the artist is working or if they sell well.”

Loreto Arenas of Galeria Loreto Arenas in Buenos Aires enjoyed tremendous success during arteBA. Arenas sold several works by 39-year-old Argentine Juan Batalla, who crafts his phallic, stand-alone sculptures from the recycled rubber of black bicycle tires. The pieces sold for US $2,000 each, including one that was purchased by a collector from Houston who used to be a professional racecar driver.

“The Yanquis can come in here, purchase and leave with no problems. But because of our economic problems here in Argentina, it can be difficult for us at times,” said Arenas.

Arenas also sold a work by Marta Minujin, one of Argentina’s most famous and trailblazing contemporary artists. The work, Entrevista a la Imaginacion, sold for US $15,500 to a private Argentine collector.

One of the stars of arteBA was Julio Alan Lepezthe sole attraction at the Dharma Fine Arts Gallery. The 30-year-old Argentine sold 17 of his mixed-media paintings for US $3,000 to $4,000 each.

“I am very happy and very amazed because I didn’t expect such a response. In most galleries there are several artists, so to come here and have a one-man show, for me, it can’t get any better,” said Lepez.

Cecilia de Torres of Cecilia de Torres Gallery in New York sold a mixed-media installment, Triada, by the Venezuelan artist Elias Crespin to New York’s Museo del Barrio for $35,000. (The Jack S. Blanton Museum of Austin also will be bringing new works back to Texas.)

“This is my 10th year at arteBA, and it is always a good event,” said de Torres.

The de Torres gallery also red-stickered six other works by Latin American artists, including three by the late Lithuanian/Uruguayan painter Jose Gurvich.

Pop Pillows

The Lila Mitre Gallery of Buenos Aires also was displaying works by Marta Minujin, and her contemporary, Edgardo Gimenez, both of whom played a seminal role in Argentina’s Pop movement in the 1960s.

Minujin and Gimenez revisited and reworked some of their most successful earlier efforts for arteBA. Minujin’s ragged and colorful pillow sculptures were a hit in Paris 40 years ago and proved again to be a crowd favorite this year, even though they didn’t sell well.

“People don’t normally put big pillow sculptures inside their homes; these works are more for museums,” said Alejandra Laurenzi of Lila Mitre Gallery.

Despite not selling the works, Minujin remained as cheerful as ever, telling ArtInfo: “This is a great event because you can show your work to people who really come to buy art.”

Gimenez’s work proved more popular for buyers. Lila Mitre Gallery sold several of his works, including the acrylic sculpture Las Panteras” (The Panthers) for $7,000 and the aluminum and bronze El Saltamonte (The Grasshopper) for $10,000.

New Initiatives

Alan Faena, the Argentine hotel impresario and cultural enthusiast, launched a series of artistic initiatives during arteBA.

The LEA Fellowships (Faena Group Laboratory of Experimental Art) will offer studio space and workshops for emerging artists in Buenos Aires and beyond. The selected artists will work in the El Porteno Art District, a newly christened artistic area in Buenos Aires’ Puerto Madero neighborhood.

In addition to “The Academy”—a gallery and studio inside the Faena Hotel—a new building, Los Molinos, will provide housing and work space on a much larger scale for the development of experimental art in Argentina when it opens its doors in 2008.

Faena also announced the inaugural F-Awards competition that will grant cash prizes to artists in an array of mediums, with an emphasis on technology and new media. The proposals will be judged by panels comprised of artists, musicians, filmmakers and critics and will offer grants of up to $25,000.

Many of these young artists had a strong presence at arteBA. The Barrio Joven (Young Neighborhood) area of the fair featured works from up-and-coming Argentines, many of whom were displaying their works publicly for the first time.

The area included a performance-art area, the “Club del Dibujo,” where artists did live cartoon renderings on a wall. The Black Box/White Cube video space screened video productions by young filmmakers.

Brian Byrnes is a freelance journalist who has called Buenos Aires home since 2001.